Punjab Assembly Shifts Blame on Terrorism
PUNJAB ASSEMBLY SHIFTS BLAME ON TERRORISM -- (Extensions of Remarks - November 03, 2005)
SPEECH OF
HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS
OF NEW YORK
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2005
Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I am glad to hear that the Legislative Assembly in Punjab recently had a discussion on terrorism there. Terrorism is an important issue which all leaders of the world must address. However, the debate turned into partisan politics of the type we're too familiar with here--each side blaming the other for spurring the terrorism in Punjab, while they ignored the real cause of the problem--the Indian government.
India has imposed a reign of terror in Punjab, Khalistan for many years, starting with a memo sent to police by their first Home Minister, Mr. Patel, describing Sikhs as ``a criminal class.'' This month marks the anniversary of one particularly brutal chapter in that reign of terror--the Delhi massacres of November 1984, in which 20,000 Sikhs were murdered. The government locked Sikh police officers in their barracks to keep them from getting involved and the government's own radio and TV called for more Sikh blood.
The newspaper Hitavada reported that the Indian government paid the governor of Punjab, the late Surendra Nath, the equivalent of $1.5 billion to foment terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir. The U.S. State Department reported that the government paid more than 41,000 cash bounties to police officers for killing Sikhs. One even got a bounty for killing a three-year-old boy.
Human-rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra compiled and published a report showing that India had a policy of picking up young Sikh men, torturing and killing them, declaring their bodies unidentified, and then secretly cremating them. Khalra identified over 25,000 such cases at three cremation grounds in Punjab. Others who have followed up on Khalra's work found that the number is at least 50,000. For his work, Mr. Khalra was arrested by the Punjab police and killed while in police custody. The only witness to the Khalra kidnapping, Rajiv Singh Randhawa, has been repeatedly arrested and harassed by the police.
Gurdev Singh Kaunke was the Jathedar of the Akal Takht, the highest Sikh religious leader. He was murdered by a police official named Swaran Singh Ghotna. No one has ever been punished for this atrocity. The driver for another religious leader, Baba Charan Singh, had his legs tied to two jeeps, which then drove off in different directions, tearing the man in half.
Mr. Speaker, why are such actions tolerated, especially by a government that calls itself democratic? America must take a stand against such tyranny.
The time has come to stop all our trade with India and all our aid to that country until such time as basic human rights are fully protected. And we must put this Congress on record in support of self-determination for the people of Punjab, Khalistan, and all the other peoples and nations seeking freedom, such as predominantly Muslim Kashmir and predominantly Christian Nagaland. This is the most effective way to end terrorism in the subcontinent.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert the Council of Khalistan's press release into the RECORD now for the information of my colleagues.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
http://thomas.loc.gov